The present invention concerns calcium carbonate suitable for use especially as a filler in papermaking or as a pigment in a paper coating composition, and a process for the preparation thereof.
Since about 1920, chemically precipitated calcium carbonate has been used as a pigment or filler in the paper industry. Various chemical routes have been followed to precipitate the calcium carbonate, but the most frequently used methods are based on the double decomposition of sodium carbonate with either calcium hydroxide or calcium chloride, or on the carbonation with carbon dioxide gas of an aqueous suspension of calcium hydroxide ("milk of lime"). The double decomposition processes generally make use of by-products or other chemical processes and therefore tend to yield calcium carbonate products which contain unwanted salts. The process based on the carbonation of milk of lime is performed in three stages; firstly, the calcination of raw limestone to produce calcium oxide or "quicklime"; secondly, the "slaking" of the quicklime with water to produce an aqueous suspension of calcium hydroxide; and finally, the carbonation of the calcium hydroxide with a gas comprising carbon dioxide.
In order to prepare a precipitated calcium carbonate for the paper industry a process based upon the carbonation of milk of lime is preferred because there is no serious problem of contamination of the product with unwanted salts, and each of the three stages in the production process can be controlled to adjust the properties of the final product.
Calcium carbonate can be precipitated from aqueous solution in three different crystal forms: the vaterite form which is thermodynamically unstable, the calcite form which is the most stable and the most abundant in nature, and the aragonite form which is metastable under normal ambient conditions of temperature and pressure, but converts to calcite at elevated temperature. The aragonite form crystallises as long, thin needles having a length:diameter ratio of about 10:1, but the calcite form exists in several different shapes of which the most commonly found are the rhombohedral shape in which the length and the diameter of the crystals are approximately equal, and the crystals may be aggregated or unaggregated; and the scalenohedral shape in which the crystals are like double, two-pointed pyramids having a length:width ratio of about 4:1, and which are generally aggregated. All these forms of calcium carbonate can be prepared by carbonation of milk of lime by suitable variation of the process conditions.
A particularly desirable type of pigment for the paper industry has come to be known as a "bulking pigment". The opacity and brightness of a paper sheet filled or coated with a mineral material depend on the ability of the sheet to scatter light. If the pigment consists of fine particles which are separated by small spaces or voids, the scattering effect is generally enhanced, and is found to be at an optimum when the width of the spaces or voids is about half the wavelength of visible light, or about 0.25 microns. Bulking pigments, or pigments consisting of fine particles separated by spaces or voids of about the optimum size are desirable in the paper industry on account of their ability to scatter visible light, but if the pigment consists of discrete fine particles, the retention of these particles in a matrix of cellulosic papermaking fibres is poor. To obtain good retention, the fine particles must be aggregated together to form clusters of larger size.
High light scattering pigments currently available to the paper industry include titanium dioxide, which is very effective but also expensive, and fine kaolin particles which have been aggregated either thermally or by chemical means. The pigments derived from kaolin are also effective in scattering light, but are again expensive. Of the forms of calcium carbonate, the aragonite form is effective as a high light scattering pigment but the process conditions necessary for its production are stringent and difficult to control. The rhombohedral form has crystals which are generally unaggregated and which pack together too closely and do not leave between them voids or spaces of the appropriate size. The scalenohedral form may be produced relatively inexpensively and the process conditions may be readily controlled to give aggregates of fine crystals separated by spaces of substantially the optimum size for light scattering, and is therefore the preferred form of calcium carbonate for use as a bulking pigment in the paper industry.
It is an object of this invention to provide a calcium carbonate bulking pigment for the paper industry which is at least as effective in light scattering as an aggregated kaolin pigment but less expensive.